George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed above: George Savile. Marqs. of Halifax.

This portraitback to top

The composition derives from Lely. [1] NPG 2962 is probably identifiable with one of the two portraits of ‘Lord Halifax’ listed in the Beale pocket books 1674 (‘half length’) and 1676/7 (unspecified). [2] A version was in Chesterfield House, London, in 1869 [3] and another is listed at Tatton Park; [4] a small pastel copy by Miss Lancaster Lucas was at Carlton House Terrace in 1905. [5]

Footnotesback to top

1) It compares closely with that of Lely’s 1st Earl of Tankerville at Audley End (O. Millar in M. Whinney & O. Millar, English Art 1625-1714, 1957, p 181).
2) As first proposed by Ellis Waterhouse, note of 7 May 1939 on file.
3) Sir George Scharf’s Sketch Books, 83:57. Shortly after Scharf’s visit the portraits were removed to Bretby Hall, Notts., and subsequently sold by Leedam & Harrison, 15-25 July 1918 - but a portrait of Halifax is not identifiable in that sale catalogue (see D. Piper, ‘The Chesterfield House Literary Portraits’, in R. Wellek & A. Ribeiro eds., Essays in Memory of James Marshall Osborn, 1979, p 185).
4) Guide 1978, p 29, no.91, as after(?) Mary Beale.
5) Lord Hawkesbury, ‘Catalogue of Portraits, Miniatures, &c, at Kirkham Abbey and 2 Carlton House Terrace, in the Possession of Lord Hawkesbury’, Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, XIII, I,1906, p 42, no.30.

Referenceback to top

Jeffree 1975-76
R. Jeffree, ‘The Excellent Mrs Mary Beale’, exhibition catalogue, Geffrye Museum, London, and Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, 1975-76, p 70, no.73 as c.1674.

Millar 1957
O. Millar in M. Whinney & O. Millar, English Art 1625-1714, 1957, p 181.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 152.

Provenanceback to top

Savile family at Rufford Abbey; sale Christie’s, 18 November 1938, lot 88 (as by Lely), bought Leggatt for the NPG.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Houbraken 1740 (showing variations in drapery, bust-length, reversed, without artist’s name, the surround incorporating Halifax offering the Crown to William and Mary),¹ as in the possession of Sir George Savile.

¹ Two studies in oil of/for the engraved figure, in reverse sense to the engraving, are in the Ashmolean Museum (D. B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV, The Earlier British Drawings, 1982, no.1492 attributed to Arthur Pond, closer to the engraving; no.1845 attributed to George Vertue, closer to NPG 2962).

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